Cheating Online and Honor Among Pioneers

Do online students cheat in a virtual class more often than in-person students in a traditional classroom?

One small study suggests there might be a greater system of honor online, but the sample size is small and, frankly, inconclusive.

Online student cheat less, we believe from direct experience, because virtual students are more virtuous than their in-person peers.

There is honor among thieves and pioneers and the online student is an effervescent pioneer outlier blazing a bright, daring — and more convenient — diploma path, and therefore they have a vested interest in making online learning work and it will never succeed if the virtual classroom becomes a hothouse for the simmering cheat sheet.

As time and tide inevitably moves all middling minds out of the cinder block schoolhouse and into the paneled bedroom — cheating will rise online to match the current in-person bell curve for nefariousness.

It is human nature to try to get as much as you can for as little effort as possible, and that is why we must now honor our virtual teaching experience, for it will all soon be irreparably muddied and sullied with the addition of the absolutely lowest common denominators imaginable.